That took balls to force that elevator but seems most necessary considering the nearly non-flyable configuration you found yourself in.
I once retracted a piper arrow's gear and felt the rudder pedals forcefully headed toward full deflection and quickly lowered the gear.........which quickly corrected the problem but not before entering a nearly 90 degree bank barely off the runway.
We took a chance by forcing it but thought it was an okay decision since we could see the problem. If it had been something different I most likely would have putted over to Anchorage and landed on that 11,000' runway with a bunch of my old buddies standing by in firetrucks.
Interesting about the gear issue you had, and quick thinking to undue the "last thing you had done".
A friend came off a village strip along the Bering Sea in a 402 loaded will pax. When he flipped the gear lever up one of the engines quit. He said it was so coincidental that he almost moved the gear lever back down.
He kept it in the air, got it cleaned up and secured and almost climbing as they flew out over the pack ice. He decided to go to Bethel (where he could get maintenance done) instead of the planned destination or the departure point. When he told the pax his plan they all emphatically nodded YES!
